Creatures of the Night
by RedRubyStorm
Summary: I... don't know what to say summary-wise. So instead I'll just say it's kind of dark. That's why it's T. xD
1. Chapter 1

**Yeah. I'll explain at the end. Maybe.**

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**_Bombalurina's P.O.V._

I cowered in the back corner of my room, trying to keep my crying quiet. The last thing I needed was for her to notice me. Mom had gotten into one of her 'moods', as she'd told me to call them, again. Basically, it just meant she'd gotten really emotional or something and started drinking. I mean, _really _drinking. This wasn't the first time it had happened. But before, she hadn't been nearly as angry. Right now she was stomping about in a rage, knocking our few possessions down, breaking them. If I had been on the other side of this table, I could've slipped out the window. But of course, I was stuck over here, praying she wouldn't notice me.

No such luck. She whirled about, and her eyes locked with mine. "You!" She screamed, along with a string of insults I probably shouldn't write here. She reached for one of the empty alcohol bottles beside her. I stood up, planning on jumping out the open window. I'd used it as an escape route before. I slid across the table, planted my feet on the ground for a moment, then swung outside.

Pain. Unbelievable pain. She must have hit me. I reached up to the side of my head. There was glass in my hair. I started to run, knowing there was no way I was going back home. It wasn't my home. It really never had been. I ran into something solid. A person. The tears were still flowing - not just from fear anymore, but from anger and pain too. I ducked around whoever it was, my vision going black because I hadn't had a real meal for months, and there was blood flowing from wear the glass in the bottle had cut me.

I ran blindly, my worn sneakers pounding the pavement. I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't really care. Nowhere could possibly be worse than the place I'd just left.

Someone -or some_thing, _rather- grabbed my arm. "Woah, chill." It was a girl's voice. Her hand felt fuzzy. "I have to get you back to my mom."

She led me back down the street. I was too weak and confused to argue. She was muttering something under her breath. I only caught and understood half of it, parts like, "Of course. She had to choose tonight..." and, "The one night I'm not at my post...". I made out a white house in front of us. The girl opened the door.

"Mom! I got her! You were right!" A woman with what looked like orange hair came down some steps in front of us.

"Etcetera! She's hurt!"

"She was like that when I found her!" Etcetera - the girl- protested. That's when everything went dark.

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**[A/N] Mmm. A little darker than I wanted. Oh well. I... think I'm not going to explain anything right now. ^.^**


	2. Chapter 2

**Heh. I can't believe I'm making another story like this. Oh well. xD**

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I blinked my eyes open a while later. My main clue I'd been out for a while: there was sunlight streaming through the window. But it wasn't _my _window. What had happened last night?

Oh yeah. Mom hit me in the head with a bottle. Some random stranger found me. I passed out. Great. I squinted at the window again, debating my chances of getting out of here, then actually being able to live on my own. The chances were slim.

"Don't bother," a voice said from near the door. I recognized the voice. This must be the girl - what was her name? Etcetera?- from last night. "Humans will freak when they see you. Big sign for either Macavity or us to get you back."

"Okay, you just said, like, ten confusing things." My head was pounding where it'd been hit.

Etcetera suddenly seemed to be taking interest in her toe. She was sitting on a table, knees pulled in tight, leaning against a wall. Her white-blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail. It made me self-concious of my own dirty scarlet hair. I examined my sleeve while she decided what to say. "I think it'd be best for my mom... and maybe my extremely loud siblings," she said the part about her siblings to the wall behind her, not to me, "to explain. I'm the youngest. I'll probably end up confusing you."

I didn't hear anything - no loud siblings, or... anything. "Too late for that," I muttered very quietly.

She laughed, then shut down her face, as if she was afraid she'd given too much away, or something. I gave her a weird look.

"Mom! Lec!" She yelled through the door. A woman bustled through the doorway - I vaguely recognized her from last night. A tall, pale girl, resembling Etcetera a lot, came in yawning behind her. Her dark brown hair hung in a curtains around her face.

"Cettie, what was so important that you had to - ohhhhh." The girl stopped talking when she saw me. "Finally decided to rejoin the living, there?"

Etcetera mumbled something like, "Don't know how you can sleep with our brothers as obnoxious as they are anyway."

The woman shot Etcetera a glare. "Maybe you should go with your brothers, Etcetera. Electra and I can take it from here."

Etcetera grumbled something about "Not being able to do anything around here," and slipped out the door. I was blinking, trying not to pass out again. My head _hurt. _

The girl, who must be Electra, stared at the door with longing. She obviously didn't want to remain here. Neither did I, truthfully.

"How much did Cettie tell you?" Electra asked, sliding onto the table and sat with her legs dangling over the edge. I was sitting on a dark green couch.

"Er... not much, except for the fact that if I tried to escape out the window, either you or some guy named Macavity would get me. Charming thought, really." My head was either splitting from the inside, or my brain was trying to eat itself. Either way, it _hurt. _

"Headache?" Electra asked me, swinging her legs back and forth, kicking the air, "Happened to me during the transformation too. Perfectly natural. It'll go away in a couple of hours, probably."

Transformation? What kind of nuthouse had I landed myself in? "Er... _what?"_

"Show her, Electra." The woman said, her eyes closed - as if she were about to get sick.

"Both?" Electra asked her.

"Might as well. She see for herself soon enough."

"Okay. Not liking the whole mysterious talking-about-me-without-me-having-a-freaking-clue-what-you're-talking-about thing."

The woman's eyes snapped open. "You'll watch your language in this house."

"Uh... no. I grew up with an alcoholic mom, not knowing where my next meal was coming from, and you expect me to change my ways now? Not going to happen. And I know much, much worse words than that."

Electra looked impressed. The woman who was with us looked like she wanted to hit me. Well, I've already been hit too, so it's not going to make a difference - except maybe it'll speed up the process of my skull splitting in two.

"Er... on with showing her, Mum?" She asked the woman.

"Fine." I was glad I was a couple feet away from her. That would give me time to flip over the couch if she started running at me or something. Then the window could work as an escape route if needed. Then again, I didn't know if there were multiple floors to this building or not.

Electra started to glow. I mean, literally glow. The air around her shimmered blue. Then she started to... grow. She got taller. Her arms got longer.

Soon enough, there was a cat-human hybrid infront of me (not that I knew the term hybrid at the time, but that's the easiest description). "What the hell?" I yelled, standing up.

There was laughter coming from the wall Electra had been sitting near earlier. I knew it must be Etcetera and her brothers. The woman Electra had called her mother was glaring at me. I could practically feel her eyes lasering holes in my stomach. Well, it's going to take a long time for me to break my bad habits like that.

Electra was... furry. She had tortoiseshell fur... um... everywhere except her face, which was human skin. Her hands were human with claws. The top of her head was like a furry thing with ears. It was dark brown. Her nose was like a normal nose, but the bottom of it was black - like a cat's nose.

Then that... thing... started to shrink. She shrunk until she was below my kneecaps, and she was a full-out tortoiseshell cat.

Then the cat grew, and there stood normal human Electra. Well, I was pretty sure I couldn't call her normal, but...

"I'm tripping. I'm totally tripping. I had too many Tic Tacs or something, and that combined with getting hit in the head with a bottle caused this hallucination."

Electra laughed. "God, do I wish. Nope. And you're one of us, Bombalurina."


	3. Chapter 3

_Ooh, _ominous music, right? But I was still convinced this had to be a hallucination of some sort. Otherwise I'm totally insane, which is quite a possible. "Yeah, um... think you've got the wrong girl right here, I've never had any, um... cat-like tendencies."

Electra laughed again. I realized the woman -whoever she was- had left. "Most of us didn't, to start with. You will. trust me. Unless you turn out to be a Pollicle or something, but you did speak our language when you passed out last night, so..."

I think the less things made sense, the more my head hurt. No dumb red-head jokes, please. "Uh... come again?"

"Right. Forgot how little you know. We're Jellicles - mixtures between cats and humans, technically, hybrids. There are other hybrids, too. Pollicles, Pekes, Poms, Pugs... it goes on and on. They're dog-human hybrids. Pollicle is the term we use the most often. But it all depends on what kind of breed of dog they're mixed with it."

"Uh... yeah. Totally insane. But what exactly is this huge transformation? What's going to happen to me? What were you talking about, 'your language'?"

Her dark eyes looked out the window, probably debating if whatever she was about to tell me would send me over the edge. Then she shrugged. "Yeah. Um... most people usually ask why we're hybrids. So I'm going to tell you that first. You know the old Egyptian gods - Isis, Osiris, Horus, Anubis, people like that?"

Nope. "Kind of?"

"Well, we're descended from Bast. Jenny has these charts showing our bloodline. It's pretty intense. But they were real at a time. I dunno if they still are. "

"Er... Bast. Bast. Cat goddess?" Just a wild guess.

"Yep. So, if you put two and two together, our language is Egyptian. Of course, we can talk to and understand cats. And there's English, too."

Okay... I said nothing. I was starting to feel tingly all over. I did not like it in the least.

"Ohhh," Electra faltered. "Your transformation's beginning. I should go, tell Mum, and... stuff."

Gee, that's reassuring. She dashed out, shutting the door silently behind her. I couldn't stand it, I started walking around the room, feeling like needles were shoving up from inside my skin.

I took off my sweatshirt. Then I stared at my arm, waiting to see metal or something poke out of my skin. Instead, little scarlet hairs were starting to grow longer and coming out of my skin.

My ears felt weird. I felt one of them. It was smaller than usual - my ear was shrinking. "What the bloody hell?" I muttered, suddenly feeling very restless. I walked faster around the room. As an afterthought, I pulled off my beat-up Converses that I'd worked so hard to earn the money for. Who knows what my feet would look like by the end of this?

My arm was starting to look completely scarlet - the other white. My clothes were getting replaced by the fur that was growing on me. I really must've gotten hit hard to be seeing this happening. I felt the top of my head, and I felt pointy ears up there, amongst long fur growing on my head as well - somehow, I knew this was called headfur.

A girl with silvery hair slipped into the room. She took in the scene - me pacing, trying not to spaz out. She nodded slightly. "You're taking this considerably well."

"Uh... you call this well?" My voice sounded stronger - older. I didn't particularly like it.

She laughed slightly. "Compared to others, yes. Usually the best reaction I get is crying. You see, it's my job to make sure people don't completely freak out during their transformation. Well, my brother, my twin, helps the guys, I help the girls. You see, we can control emotions. We have powers. They call it Bast's blessing on us."

"Er..." What did she expect me to say? My hands felt weird - I looked down to find they were growing claws. Well, at least I get a natural weapon out of all this.

"Usually, I just let whoever it is go to sleep. Would you prefer that?"

"Uh, _yeah." _If I hadn't been so freaked, I would of probably come up with a biting response. But no matter how strong I pretended to be, all of this was just too much to comprehend.

"Fine," the girl said, shrugging. Her hair was longer than both Etcetera and Electra's, I noticed. Then I wondered if that affected her fur somehow.

She pressed the tips of her fingers to my temple, muttered something, and then I was out. Into a dreamless, non-sensational sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

When I woke, I was full-out cat hybrid. Conveniantly, there was a mirror hanging on the wall off to the side. Hmm...

"Holy crap." I know. I'm eloquent sometimes. But... what else was there to say?

I guess you could say the main color of my fur was scarlet, like my hair. There was white at my chest, with red pretty much everywhere else but my one arm. There were black spots on my lower torso. My hair/ear-thing (No, Cettie, I can't think of what to call it) was mostly scarlet, with some white and black stripes. The whole affect was kind of stunning, seeing as I still figured I was hallucinating. I mean, I've never really had that wild of an imagination. Growing up the way I did, you almost had to always live in reality. So me coming up with a hallucination this vivid wasn't likely.

I heard the door open, and the same silvery-haired girl came in. "You're awake. Are you aware how long you slept?"

"Um... no?" Time really isn't a concerning thing when you wake up entirely different than you fell asleep. Especially if you wake up as half of another species.

"Twelve hours." I laughed at how shocked she looked at this.

"On my better days I've been known to sleep at least ten. When something remotely close to what happened yesterday happens, I'm down and out for a while. But shouldn't I be blaming you for that? You _are _the one who put me to sleep, after all."

Her cheeks got a little red, which I have to admit, looked kind of funny on her tan skin. Then again, who was I to be talking about other people's appearances right then?

"I can't control how long you sleep. Cori can, because putting people to sleep and things is more or less his specialty. Mine's more of the reading minds, telling the future stuff. And the prophecies. Can't forget them."

"Pardon me," I said in my most polite voice, which can barely be called polite, "but who's Cori? And who's the Macavity guy everyone's been talking about?"

"Names have power, dear. I don't suggest using the Hidden Paw's name aloud. You can use any of his synonyms - The Hidden Paw, The Napoleon of Crime, Osiris's incarnate, as a couple of the younger one's like to call him. Cori's my brother, my twin. I probably should let Jenny or someone else explain more to you."

"Yeah, uh... do we get food anywhere in here? And, well, how do I get back to my regular human... form?" Yeah, sure, blessed blood of Bast, whatever. But there was no way I'd be spending too much time in this form.

"I'm not the one who teaches people how to shift - plus, you still have to learn your other form, too. I'll get Victoria to teach you soon, because she's best at it. She'll have you able to go from one to the other in no time."

I groaned. "There're way too many names for me to try to remember around here."

The girl laughed. "To make that feeling worse, my name's Tantomile. Humans call me, well... Tansy. I absolutely hate it, but I have my brother -Coricopat, or Cori- to blame for that one. And don't worry about being out there in what we call Jellicle form - everyone that's still here is by far used to it."

"Enough with the fancy-schmancy names!" I didn't even bother asking about the Jellicle thing.

She laughed and pulled the door open. I admit it, my jaw dropped when I saw that hallway. I grew up in a crappy, small apartment. This hall alone was about half the size of the apartment. Not only was it huge, but it was well decorated too. At the far end, there was a small white love-seat. The whole one side was covered in mirrors. A couple doors were marked with signs and things, like: 'Warning! It's electric!' And: 'I'm not random, I'm a Jellicle, crazy, part kitty, Etcetera.'

The hallways opened into a large room with a black and white tile floor, that made my eyes start playing tricks on me if I looked at it for too long. Tantomile opened a black refrigerator and gestured for me to pick what I wanted. I had an unwavering want to drink mile. I grabbed the gallon of it that was sitting there, glanced around at what seemed to be millions of cubbards, then looked at Tantomile. She reached up behind her and opened one of the cubbards. There were a lot of glasses inside. I picked the first one I saw, poured the milk into it, then chugged.

I wiped what was probably a milk mustache into my fur -which felt a lot weirder than you'd think- then scanned the remnants of the fridge. There. I pulled out a little thing of yogurt, and because I was the master at eating things without utensils, slurped it down.

Tantomile rolled her eyes. "You really were brought up on the streets." She tossed the empty container into a trashcan basketball style, and put the glass in the sink.

She caught me staring at the trashcan in wonder. "Sports happen a lot around here. You'll find that soon enough. Now... finding Victoria, and introducing you to people!"

"Fun..." I'm not a people person. I'm not a cat/people person either, as it turns out. Plus, it's kind of embarassing when absolutely no one can pronounce my name correctly on the first time. When I used to go to school (I quit to help my mom when her problems got really bad) and got in trouble, the principal would be like, "Now, now, Bom - Bum - Bomba - Miss Johnson." I'd gotten people to simply call me Bombi. Then the whole Bambi thing started, and let's just say whoever called me Bambi wished they hadn't.

Tantomile snorted.

"Uh... were you intruding on my personal thoughts?"

"Just trying to learn how to pronounce your name."

Great...


	5. Chapter 5

**Screw math homework. I mean, who does THAT anymore?**

**Anyway. (Sorry I cut last chapter off like that. Well, technically, *I* didn't. More on that later. Maybe)**

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Names were swirling around in my head; Plato, Tumblebrutus, Coricopat, Jennyanydots, Jellylorum... Tantomile had explained that there used to be more people here, but some were kidnapped by Macavity, or... well, killed.

Then I saw _him._

He was freaking _gorgeous! _"Who's that?" I muttered to Tantomile. His skin was deeply tanned - like he actually belonged in Egypt, unlike the rest of us. His somewhat-blonde hair was a little screwed up, slightly falling into his eyes. The effect was entrancing.

I was pretty sure she was invading my thoughts when she laughed, but... "The Rum Tum Tugger. Don't bother. He's a jerk."

Well. So was I. Not the kind of dating-you-but-really-screwing-around-with-some-other-guy kind of mean, but, well, you should of seen what became of the kid who tried to bust me for taking Tic Tacs from our crappy supermarket. Let's just say I haven't seen him since. I think his parents sent him off to some boarding school. Yeah. Whatever. Rich pricks.

That's when he noticed us. His dark eyes that looked like they were full of laughter swept over me, and I felt Tantomile stiffen.

He swaggered over, and held out his hand like we were old people or something. "Pleased to meet you. The Rum Tum Tugger at your service."

I stared at his hand until he pulled it away, him laughing. Yeah, well. Can't make myself feel much more moronic.

"Bombalurina." I said breezily, as if I didn't care. Which I totally did.

"Some name." He said with a wink. "See ya around, Bombi," and then he walked past us, his arm brushing my hip on the way out. My skin/fur/whatever you want to call it tingled where he touched me.

Tantomile was quiet. "Sweet on him?" I asked her, braced to duck if she took a swipe at me or something.

She blushed again. "No."

"I don't believe you." I laughed. There had been jerks like him when I was in high school. Most of them weren't as good-looking, but...

A white-blonde girl came in then. "Victoria!" Tantomile said.

She glanced in our direction, then turned when she saw it wasn't just Tantomile. "Who's this?" She asked, blue eyes looking at me kind of like she was judging whether or not we'd be enemies.

"Bombalurina." I said.

Victoria's eyes darkened. Enemies indeed? Perhaps.

"Is she The One - you know... the... _thing, _you and Cori were talking about?"

"Hmm. Not liking the whole not-mentioning-things about me while in my presence." Yes, I am a snoot, the one with the snappy comebacks, and I'm pretty dang proud of it.

Tantomile rolled her eyes. Victoria looked surprised that someone dared to challenge her. I was instantly not liking her.

"We'll explain once Old D's sure you're The One." Tantomile said calmly, maybe judging if a battle was going to break out infront of her or not.

I groaned. "More names? Jesus. Can't I just call you all Bob, Bill, Billy-bob, Billforth, Billworth, and so on?"

Tantomile grinned crookedly. "If you'd be able to keep track of that, then yes."

My eyes widened. "Fine. Can I just call you all Avery then?"

She laughed. "A little random, much? Anyway, Victoria here is the best instructor at teaching how to shift forms, and I think we best get you into human form while my brother and I talk with Old Deuteronomy - our leader." Her brother practically materialized at her shoulder.

They walked out of the living room we'd ended up in in perfect sync. "Don't worry about that," Victoria said, "that's perfectly normal for them. I don't know why Bast gave them the powers she did, but that's how they are. It's kind of weird sometimes."

I stared at her blankly. "Can we just please get me back to feeling slightly human again?"

"Fine. But your human form will feel different for a week or so. Usually we grow from around a couple inches to a foot. The shortest person here is - was..." She blinked a couple times. Her eyes were a little shiny. "Anyway. You saw signs on doorways when Tantomile led you around? Ones like 'It's electric' and stuff? That'd be Electra's room, by the way. I'm not sure I advise you go in there."

"Yeah. I saw the signs." I ignored her remark about Electra.

"Okay. They brought you into Bustopher's nearly unused room then." No idea who Bustopher was = don't really care.

She led me back into the long hallway, and then into the room I'd started out in. There was no way I'd ever be able to navigate through this house. As if she was reading my mind, she said, "In human form, you'll also notice your eyesight, hearing, memory, and sense of smell get better as well. Which can be a dreadful thing, given some of the guys in this house."

I admit it - she almost had me laughing.

"So, you shift by, well, first picturing yourself in human form. Not how you'd like to look - how you do look. Then you have to concentrate on, like, the fur and claws going away from your hands. The tail shrinking back into a tailbone. Like, if I focus on my hand, I can make it change into a cat's paw right now, without the rest of me shifting." She held up her arm, and her hand shrunk into a white, petite cat's paw, claws and all. Truthfully, the thought of it still makes me sick, even if I can do the same thing now. My stomach was churning.

"Sorry. I forgot that freaks some people out. Whoops." Her hand started to grow back to normal. I shut my eyes, not wanting at all to see this. "Anyway. You can look now. Just picture yourself as human - or just a generic human. I'll be here to help when and if you need it."

I ignored what little I have of a conscience that was telling me not to, and I rolled my eyes anyway. "Glad to see you have confidence in me."

"My pleasure." She muttered. "Just do it. Most people can't shift on their first try. But if you're really The One..."

Ignoring her last sentence, I shut my eyes. _Human, human. _I pictured myself. My long, scarlet hair, my way too big feet, the nails that had always refused to stay short.

All of a sudden, I opened my eyes. The fur was gone. My black, tie-dyed peace sign-with leopard spots shirt was back on. My jeans were there. I was actually back to human form. My socks felt weird on the cold, tile floor. I threw my beat-up black converses back on, as well as my black sweatshirt that was white inside.

Feeling a little more normal, I looked at Victoria, my brown eyes meeting her icy blue ones. "What next?" I asked her.

"Now," she said, a little like she was just making up her mind, "we take you to Old Deuteronomy."

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**[A/N] That wasn't particularly exciting, and I apologize. I just didn't know what to write. :/**

**Now on with the whole me-not-really-posting-last-chapter thing:**

**I was over at my friend's house. She was watching Jersey Shore (groooaaan), so I went on her computer, onto fanfiction. Naturally, I started working on a story. It happened to be this story. So I type the word 'Great' and go to use the bathroom. Then my dad came to pick me up, and I had to go home. My chapter didn't even cross my mind. But then my friend adds the '...' to the end, and presses save. She had been thinking about getting a fanfiction account at one point, so I'd taught her how to post chapters. Miraculously, she manages to put my poorly labelled file to the right story, and last chapter was posted. If you weren't satisfies with last chapter, thank Hornet (not on fanfiction) for it. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Heehee. Sleep seems to dislike me. Yeah, well...**

**[Ruby is back on track with this storyyyyyy!]**

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Truthfully, my first impression of Old Deuteronomy (Or, for my low skilled typing's sake, Old D) was that he was a big, brown, furry mop. He was in Jellicle/hybrid form. Hence the furry part.

But he did have an air of power about him. I'm pretty sure he could zap me into a kajillion pieces if he wanted to. Though it was more of a wise air, not, like, I'm so strong and feel like zapping you without thinking it through air. Yes, I do have a feeling the longer I spend time around these people, the more insane I get. Just for your information.

However, my visit to Old D was kind of useful. He explained a crapload of stuff to me. Like how days and nights would get flip-flopped (as in, I'd be awake during the night, and asleep during daytime), how sunlight would hurt my eyes, our ancestry - all of us descended from Bast, a handful from Apollo (hence why people like to burst into song at random moments - I pray to Bast I'm not descended from Apollo), how I'd be learning Ancient Egyptian (Not hieroglyphs, those are ridiculous, but how to speak it), actually how I would eventually be able to use, like, spells with Ancient Egyptian, and how Victoria and a couple others would be taking me over some things, like Ancient Egyptian speaking and such. Kind of like school lessons - but not nearly as boring.

He'd also said that I'd start to get taller, my face would change slightly (he phrased it as 'you'll look more like a feline'), and that I'd be getting a heck of a lot stronger.

I was kind of interested to see how I'd turn out. Sure, I mean, I've pretty much been inducted into the losing side in a war (against Macavity, technically), but still. We were like superhumans. For those of you who wish you were like Jellicles, like us (Jenny said some writer-guy named T.S. Eliot learned about us when he witnessed a Jellicle Ball, and he copied down the songs, like, word for word, then some other guy called Andrew Lloyd Webber turned his writing into a musical, which apparently, is scarily accurate to the real songs and how most of us look. And he got the Jellicle's names from somewhere. Jenny also said he could've been a human blessed by Bast, just someone to get the word out, not that most humans know that we actually exist somewhere) you definitely want to be. Sure, there are a couple draw-backs, like the sunlight thing (and, as I'd discovered, stuff like nails and hair growing super fast), but ultimately, I'd rather be a Jellicle than a pure human, I'd discovered. Let's face it, if I was a regular human, I'd be back with that hag for a mom, no clear way of escape, and I'd be bored to tears. Yeah. Jellicle was the way to be.

After I'd talked with Old D, I kind of just sat in what seemed to be the central room of the house, looking around, unable to take too much in. I mean, for all I knew, that bottle had given me brain damage and this was just one big hallucination in a hospital. At least, that would be believable if I knew my mom cared enough to take me to the hospital.

Instead, I let the harshness of reality settle in, and I knew I was in for a long, long ride.

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Apparently, I'd have to go to school. Not normal school, Tantomile and Coricopat (freaky twins. It's like they can read each other's minds. Which, based on what Victoria said earlier, they very well might be able to) had explained. Pretty much survival school.

Electra would be teaching me ancient Egyptian. Trying to see what my affinity is, or something like that. Apparently everyone as something about them - some can read Hieroglyphs no problem, others can say a word in Egyptian and whatever they say actually happens, others still might have a connection to the elements... I could go on and on.

Munkustrap -a cat whom I actually hadn't met yet, lucky me- would be giving me battle training. I didn't get a reason for why. Stupid psychics.

Victoria, of course, would be working with me on shifting.

As far as I knew, that was it. It seemed a little less boring than being in regular-people school, but I wasn't too enthusiastic about the whole life-changing thing.

Tantomile seemed to appear from behind the chair and put her hand on my shoulder. I whirled around, not knowing that it was her at first.

"Come. Old Deuteronomy agrees. You're The One. The One to make or break us, the Jellicles."


	7. Chapter 7

**I hate this part. The formalities. The getting to where the plot actually begins. Once I get past this, I think I'll be good.**

**[Uh... I haven't worked on this in forever...]**

**Whaaaat? It's a non iPod Challenge update? I went over my Egyptian Mythology again (once upon a time, I took a course that touched on it) and for the time being, I'm good with what I wanna do. I have no idea how often I'll update though... (Kind of got carried away with the mythology. But some of it is necessary to know. If you get sick of it, let me know.)**

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Uh... what? This being the first thing to come to mind, it was also the first thing out of my mouth. "Uh... what?"

A small smile. "Come on. Old Deuteronomy will explain." That was all the explanation Tantomile offered.

* * *

Formal meeting. Not fit for one who practically grew up on her own, on the streets. Shifting in my seat.

If you can believe it, a desk. A wooden desk.

Old D on one side, me on the other, and the twins at one of the short ends.

I didn't like it. Brought back memories of me, in eighth grade, sitting across from a principal, getting lectured because, not only am I skipping world history, but my grades are dropping as well. That was the last time I was in that school, ever.

Tantomile started talking, not particularly looking at me, or anything, really.

"The Jellicles have been fighting a losing war for a century at least. It started with Macavity turning evil, sharing his essence with the personification of evil, Set."

"You'll learn about Set and the other four main Egyptian gods and godesses with Electra later." Coricopat supplies, as if my mind can't remember things I'd learned only hours before.

"But there's been a prophecy," Tantomile goes on, ignoring her brother, "That a scarlet One would save us, or would cause our destruction."

Well, damn. I wonder who that scarlet one is? "Oh, yeah," I say, "because I totally know sooo much about your gods, or even your way of living."

Deut stands up, "We need you to go under Macavity, act like a henchcat, free Jellicles who have been caught, take the rebellious henchcats to our side," he says. "First, though," his eyes twinkle a little, "You need to go train. Electra is in her room, she'll be expecting you."

I nod, and leave, deciding not to argue. They obviously already have my fate planned out, so what is there to argue with? Apparently, my opinion on all of this counts for nothing.

* * *

Electra was sitting -human form- on a bed with a dark blue comforter, her feet tucked under her. She had a couple large, thick books open on the bed, and was scanning one carefully.

"Uh..." I said, just to get her attention.

She looked up, deer-in-headlights expression for a moment. "Right, I was supposed to teach you mythology. And help you figure out your patron deity. Oops."

She dumps three of the big books on the already kind of cluttered floor. She gestures for me to sit on the bed as well.

I pick my way through assorted books and papers on the floor, and perch on the edge of the bed.

"Okay. What do you know about Egyptian Mythology?" She asks.

Well, I learned a few things this week... "Bast is the cat goddess, who we're descended from. Set is the... Uh, Set is evil."

She snorts. "Good enough. Let's start at the beginning. There's Chaos, and Ma'at, or order. They have to balance each other out. But out of Chaos came two gods first - Nut, the sky goddess, and Geb, the earth god."

"Her name's Nut? Nut and Geb? Did they have a kid named Nutjob?"

She gives me a dry look. "Can I have, just once, someone who doesn't say something like that?"

I give her a cheeky grin. "Nope!"

She rolls her eyes. "They were passionate lovers, and soon Nut had two children - Ra, the sun god, and Khonsu, the moon god."

"Jeeze, these Egyptians had quite a way with names," I say.

She laughs. "They still do. Have you considered your own name, Bombalurina?"

I glare at her.

"But Nut and Geb had difficulty being together after these two were born. They managed to be sometimes, of course, but it was difficult without smooshing their children inbetween them. Finally, their own son, Ra, declared they could no longer be together because they were smooshing not only their sons but other gods and goddesses who came to be - like Thoth, the god of knowledge, for instance. He also feared Nut giving birth, and declared she could not do so any day of the year."

"Stuck eternally pregnant? Gee, what a great son!" Heh. I made a play on words.

"Exactly. Ra ended up to be a great leader, but not a great thinker. He assumed since a circle has three-hundred and sixty degrees, a year must have thee-hundred sixty days. The system worked for a while. But eventually the sun and earth got out of time, Nut was long overdue to give birth, and still Ra refused to listen. The solution was left to Thoth. He invented a game called senet. The rules are lost, no one but the gods plays it anymore, because they're the only ones ancient enough to remember the rules to it. Nut learned the rules to it, and she and Khonsu played it, gambling for moonlight. She won enough moonlight to make five new days - days that _she _owned, not Ra. She used these five days -the Demon Days- to give birth to her children. Osiris was first. He started out as the male embodiment of love and creation. He healed what Ra had done to earth.

Next day was Horus.

Then Set. He was ugly, and was evil from the start. He is the cause of mortal death.

Isis next. She was the mother life force. She and Osiris were in love long before they joined together as husband and wife.

Then Nephthys. She ends up as both sister and wife to Set. She's the river godess, and was born on the last Demon Day."

I whistle. "Yeah. Not gonna remember all of that."

Electra laughs. "I don't expect you to. We'll work on your patron tomorrow, or whenever. Go now before you have a brain implosion."

As I stand up and pick my way back through her room, Electra picks up another one of her thick books.

Thoughts swirl through my head again and again as I wander through the house. "Evil from the start... Demon Days... Forbidding to give birth..." And these were some of the beings we'd have to be fighting?


End file.
